The disposal of medical waste has, heretofore, been an expensive, time-consuming, hazardous and labor intensive problem. Because medical waste may, and often does, contain highly infectious materials, before disposal sterilization is, and has been encouraged. Moreover, government regulations strictly control medical waste from collection to disposal. Severe penalties apply if the regulations are not adhered to. A manifest or record must be kept of each lot or batch of medical waste from collection to disposal, by law. Only certified licensed medical waste haulers are authorized to collect medical waste from medical facilities.
Solid medical waste includes solid, semi-solid and liquid material but does not include domestic sewage materials, as prescribed by law. It includes, for instance, waste from diagnosis and treatment of humans and animals, and in the production and testing of biologicals; cultures and stock of infectious agents and biologicals; waste from the production of biologicals, discarded virus cultures and vaccines and all the glassware and devices used in the foregoing. Human and animal wastes including tissues, organs, body fluids, etc., removed during surgery, research or autopsy, for instance, and all contaminated material such as dressings, bed linen, towels, bags, etc., associated therewith. It includes whole animal carcasses, body parts and bedding of infected animals.
Facilities generating medical waste, e.g., hospitals, clinics, and/or doctors' offices, have devices for sterilizing materials and instruments before use. Most such facilities have a steam autoclave so that the waste which is contained in red leak-proof bags, simply can be placed in the autoclave for sterilization, and the bags are then removed and placed in a waste receptacle such as a barrel or can, or in cardboard boxes, for instance, and picked up by a certified medical waste hauler for disposal.
In practice, for maximum bulk reduction, the medical facility bags and boxes its medical waste, in a cardboard box, for instance, for pick-up by the certified hauler. If the waste is autoclaved (sterilized) the hauler trucks it to a shredding facility and after shredding he loads another truck with the shredded waste, for eventual disposal. Thus, the hauler must load one truck with the sterilized medical waste, drive to a shredder facility, unload the truck, shred the waste, load it onto a second truck and finally dispose of it. Should the medical waste from a facility not be sterilized, the certified hauler must either dispose of it by incineration, an expensive procedure, or he may autoclave the bagged waste and process as above.